The effort that led to success

He was at the Escuela Superior de Ponce, the so-called “Ponce High”, where his friendship with Elín Ortiz (another Ponceño who later became a successful TV actor and producer) led him to write screenplays and stage comedy skits. The medicine That wasn’t in his plans yet. “I was very involved in the drama area. Later on, I got a scholarship to study at the University of Puerto Rico. My wish was to study drama or theater production. But they invited me to go to Poli, Polytechnic Institute of Saint-Germain (now Saint-Germain Campus of Inter-American University University of Puerto Rico) to see a play. I was so excited that night that I decided to go study there. The interesting thing is that Polly didn’t have a track In itself Drama because that was optional. So I decided without much thought to study Biology and Chemistry. I’ve been in many plays, but I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry,” said Rivera-Duino.

From drama to medicine

From Saint-Germain he was able to graduate in three years and when he saw the admission of his friends in the schools medicine Inside and outside Puerto Rico, he wanted to try his luck in this field of work as well. “When I finished, I said in my mind the theatrical production. But since I didn’t have much way out of the case of drama, I said, Well, let me apply to a school of medicine (from the University of Puerto Rico) to see what happens. I applied and they took me,” recalls the proud husband, father of three daughters and grandfather of three grandchildren.

after start medicine In 1956, Rivera Duinho gradually discovered the importance of this profession and learned from his teachers what he calls the art of medicine. “I had the pleasure of having some distinguished teachers. How much they did with a simple stethoscope, what instruments are needed today and various things they did with their ears. They had a skill, what I call an art medicine. Simply with a good history and a good physical examination of the patient, they could come to conclusions that were eventually confirmed by the modern methods that were available to do so. So it impressed me. You continue to hear areas of interest within medicine And I realized that the field that most attracted me was pediatrics,” he said.

service to his people

1960 and after completing his studies in medicineShe worked for several years in Georgia as the director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Later, he came back to Puerto Rico to do his residency in Pediatrics and there he started serving his country in a different way. During those years, he became aware of the situation the island was in with regard to children’s health and, according to him, was “very active in speaking out about the things that weren’t done well”. Governor Don Luis A. Feré Dr. (Ernesto) Colón Yordan, Minister of Health. While I continued to speak out about bad things, one day Dr. Colon Yordan called me and told me, young man, that you talk a lot about the problems here in the field of children’s health. I have a position here as a manager for mothers and children, do you accept it or shut up? So, obviously, I will not be silent, I accepted the position and there they gave me the title of Assistant Secretary to Mothers and Children. In this way I started to get involved on the government side, in the health services,” he explained, who during his time in that position has distinguished himself working with Head Start programs in the country.

That job with Head Start brought him to the United States as Director General of Health, where he gained experience managing financial management and working with health programs in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. “It gave me an opportunity to see what was being done in all of these places and at the same time I started to make changes to the way the federal government’s health staff were employed. It was also involved in creating new laws at the federal level to provide funds for poor patients and for health conditions,” said Rivera Duinho, who was also involved in creating new laws at the federal level. Complex, I get them to work in communities so they can get a sense of exactly what’s going on there.

For a physician, success is the culmination of many efforts made with good intentions.

This doctor’s course was commissioned with a special desire to offer his experience and knowledge for the benefit of Puerto Ricans.

From a doctor to the Minister of Health

At the end of his involvement in the federal government, he was recruited by the then mayor of San Juan, Carlos Romero Barcelo, to direct health services in the capital. When Barceló was elected governor of Puerto Rico, he appointed him as the country’s health minister. “I learned from the press because he never told me in person. Obviously he wasn’t going to say no, first because it wouldn’t make him look bad and second, because it was a great opportunity to continue to bring those ideas and those concepts to a level for all of Puerto Rico,” he said.

During his tenure as Secretary of the Department of Health, which ran from 1977 to 1984, he highlighted many important changes in that agency. One, providing health services to municipalities that do not have doctors to care for residents. “We found that there were 16 cities in Puerto Rico that didn’t have a single doctor, no practitioner, nothing. What they did do was some very good nurses who were front and center. That’s when it occurred to me to create the Public Service Act, which means that all people who graduate in That time, both of them medicine Like nursing, laboratory, and pharmacy, they had to perform one year of public service before obtaining an official license. At first it made a lot of noise, but I feel proud because the feedback I got years later from those people who went to those sites was very nice.”

Another change he made in the Ministry of Health was the establishment of the health system by levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The definition was in terms of personnel, i.e. what employees can go to, and at what level. For example, the primary physician and general practitioner at the primary level, the primary physician and some specialists at the secondary level, and the sub-specialist physician at the tertiary level. We define the initial level as prevention. I never forget that we did a pilot study in Sabana Grande, Lajas and Saint-Germain. We had a team of professionals: there were health educators, social workers, mental health nurses, etc. A service was created so that when a patient arrived at the emergency room there was a doctor ready to determine whether it was a mental health condition or a physical health condition. Most of the cases that came in didn’t have anything physical, they were mostly in the mental health field. And since then I’ve been talking about the mental health problem in Puerto Rico.”

After passing the Ministry of Health, Rivera Duinho continued to practice pediatrics and was the medical director of several hospital institutions, including HIMA San Pablo Hospitals, of which he was president for 20 years. Chief Medical Officer. In addition, he was president and dean for several years at a school medicine from Ponce. He retired from practice a year ago, but remains active on the boards of directors for various services, such as the Hall of Fame of the medicine Puerto Rico, which it considers one of its legacies. “We’re introducing Puerto Rico to amazing people who have done so much for the country and who for some reason go unnoticed. That’s part of my involvement in this Hall of Fame group, and of course, I always continue to help doctors who step up to get resources so they can study and not have any hardships while doing their specialties,” “He said.

Music and reading in your life

out th medicineHe finds this poncinio in music and reading to find the balance he needs in his life. “The balance can be with art, with music, sports, etc. where you can get out where you want to go rest time, As we say, and be able to balance your life. My favorite thing is music, for example, and reading. My uncle was a teacher, but he was one of those teachers before, and he was fascinated by music, and he was fascinated by reading. I learned to read from him and I learned music from him. I learned classical music with him. He had some radio stations with classical music and he taught me, and he got me out,” said the doctor, who shares that taste for music with other people since several times a year gives talks about the musical development of Puerto Rico, Europe, and Latin America, among others, on demand.

Success is synonymous with effort

How does a person who has lived it all define success? After a short pause, a simple answer. “Success is something that comes from the effort you make to get things, and if you don’t make an effort to get something, you won’t be successful. Success is the culmination of many efforts made with the best intentions.” He concluded, “We have to see it this way to be able to Feeling proud and always thanking God for our ability to achieve success.”